Effect of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) content on thermal and mechanical properties of CNFs/SiC nanocomposites

Carbon nanofibers dispersed β-SiC (CNFs/SiC) nanocomposites were prepared by hot-pressing via a transient eutectic phase route at 1900 °C for 1 h under 20 MPa in Ar. The effects of additional CNFs content between 1 and 10 wt.% were investigated, based on densification, microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties. The CNFs/SiC nanocomposites by the CNFs contents below 5 wt.% exhibited excellent relative densities over 98% with well dispersed CNFs. However, the CNFs/SiC nanocomposites containing the CNFs of 10 wt.% possessed a relative density of 92%, accompanying CNFs agglomerates and many pores located inside the agglomerates. The three point bending strength gradually decreased with the increase of CNFs content, but the indentation fracture toughness increased to 5.7 MPa m1/2 by the CNFs content of 5 wt.%. The thermal conductivity was enchanced with the increase of CNFs content and represented a maximum value of 80 W/mK at the CNFs content of 5 wt.%.